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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what year is Rilke's sixth letter written?
(a) 1903.
(b) 1904.
(c) 1908.
(d) 1912.

2. How does Rilke say the young poet's career compares to other careers?
(a) Rilke says that the young poet's career is essentially the same as all other careers.
(b) Rilke says that the young poet's career is better than other careers because it allows more solitude.
(c) Rilke says that the young poet's career has more conventions than other careers.
(d) Rilke says the young poet's career is more distinguished than other careers.

3. What does Rilke say women have more of than men?
(a) Humanity.
(b) Love.
(c) Empathy.
(d) Patience.

4. To what does Rilke compare the realization about the true nature of human existence in letter eight?
(a) A person placed in the presence of God.
(b) A person transported from one country to another.
(c) A person is suddenly taken from his house and placed on top of a mountain.
(d) A single person left after a war.

5. What two aspects of human life does Rilke claim have no explanation?
(a) Love and art.
(b) Forgiveness and hatred.
(c) Birth and death.
(d) Death and love.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long has Rilke been in the city from which he writes the fifth letter?

2. What type of poem does Rilke enclose with the seventh letter?

3. In letter five, to where does Rilke say he is preparing to move?

4. What aspect of human life does Rilke say is most burdened with conventions?

5. Who does Rilke say in the seventh letter cannot understand love?

Short Essay Questions

1. What advice does Rilke give the young poet for doctoring his sadness?

2. Rilke implies that security and comfort are negative. Why?

3. What does Rilke say about the amount of beauty in Rome?

4. Rilke says that young people can't understand love. What reason does he give?

5. Rilke indicates that humans have distanced themselves from the spiritual realm, from God, and from each other. How has this distancing occurred?

6. What does Rilke mean when he says that the names of things are often misrepresented of what things are?

7. In letter seven, Rilke compares an ideal romantic relationship to "two solitudes [that] protect and border and salute each other." What does he mean by this?

8. What is Rilke's definition of love?

9. Why does Rilke believe that women are responsible for a future change in humans' approach to romantic love?

10. What is Rilke's view of God?

(see the answer keys)

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